Betsy Andreu, victim of many attacks from Lance Armstrong, plays Oprah and tells News what she would ask cyclist at sit-down

Oprah Winfrey is set to visit disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong for a sit-down where Armstrong is expected to offer a partial doping admission. (Daily News Photo Illustration)

When Lance Armstrong sits down with Oprah Winfrey on Monday at his Austin, Tex., home for an interview scheduled to be broadcast Thursday, he is expected to make a limited admission to doping in his illustrious cycling career, according to a report in USA Today.

It is unclear what questions Winfrey will actually ask the disgraced champion, who has been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned from cycling for life following a 1,000-page report by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency detailing what it called "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen." But Betsy Andreu, who has been on the receiving end of abhorrent attacks by Armstrong for a decade, knows which questions she would ask.

It was Andreu who told a reporter in 2003, and later testified under oath, that she and her husband, former Armstrong teammate Frankie Andreu, had been present in the hospital room in 1996 when Armstrong told doctors he had doped with EPO, Human Growth Hormone and steroids. Betsy Andreu told the Daily News she would ask Armstrong:

1. Will you admit that the hospital incident happened and will you describe it in detail?

In a 2006 civil case Armstrong filed against an insurer, Andreu and her husband testified that they had heard the admission. Armstrong denied the claims and embarked on a relentless campaign to discredit the Andreus, calling Betsy "vindictive, bitter, vengeful and jealous." There were also threats, according to the USADA report, including the email Armstrong sent Frankie Andreu in December 2003 after Betsy had spoken to Irish journalist David Walsh about the hospital incident. Armstong reminded Frankie that "by helping to bring me down is not going to help y'alls situation at all. There is a direct link to all of our success here and I suggest you remind her of that."

2. Did you intimidate or tamper with witnesses who implicated you in doping?

The Andreus weren't the only teammates, friends, associates or journalists who were targeted by Armstrong, according to the USADA report. The report describes chilling confrontations with cyclists Filippo Simeoni, Tyler Hamilton, Levi Leipheimer and Jonathan Vaughters, among others, and recounts a scene in which Armstrong chased down Simeoni in a breakaway group in the 2004 Tour de France. Simeoni had testified against Armstrong's Italian doctor, Michele Ferrari.

"You made a mistake when you testified against Ferrari. . . . I can destroy you," Simeoni said Armstrong told him. Armstrong made a "zip the lips gesture" that was replayed repeatedly on television and later described by USADA as constituting "acts of attempted witness intimidation."

Armstrong has had a long, bitter and well-documented feud with follow Tour de France winner Greg LeMond, who Frankie Andreu said in a USADA affidavit was also threatened: "I recall Lance saying words to the effect of, 'Who does Greg think he is, talking about Ferrari? I'm going to take him down,' " Andreu says in the affidavit.

Armstrong confronted Hamilton in an Aspen restaurant in 2011, putting his hands on Hamilton, who had given testimony in the federal investigation into Armstrong and later discussed his former teammate on CBS' "60 Minutes," telling him: "When you're on the witness stand, we are going to f------ tear you apart. You are going to look like a f------ idiot."

Hamilton further testified that Armstrong said, "I'm going to make your life a living . . . f------ . . . hell," according to the USADA papers.

The witness intimidation issue, which certainly didn't end with Andreus, Simeoni or Hamilton, according to USADA, raises the issue of whether Armstrong's comments might lead to further criminal exposure, and whether the government might renew the two-year criminal investigation it abruptly shut down last February.

Betsy Andreu told the Daily News she would follow up with this question:

3. Why did the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, Andre Birotte Jr., shelve the federal investigation into allegations that you were involved in defrauding the government, drug trafficking, money laundering and conspiracy?

Investigators from the Food and Drug Administration, the FBI and the U.S. Postal Service (which sponsored Armstrong's Tour de France-winning teams) were in the midst of their investigation when Birotte announced in February 2012 that he had closed the probe. He gave no reason for ending the inquiry, which has led to speculation that various politicians who supported Armstrong may have pressured Birotte.

4. Do you know if the investigation was ended for political reasons?

Certainly, Armstrong's circle of high-priced lawyers and crisis managers have influential political connections. As The News has reported, one of the cyclist's crisis managers, Mark Fabiani of the firm Fabiani & Lehane, has close ties to former President Clinton and the Democratic party. Fabiani's partner, Chris Lehane, worked in the Clinton White House counsel's office as part of a unit responsible for helping manage the Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky scandals of the 1990s.

"I expected more from my government," says Betsy Andreu. "If I was a celebrity, would they have continued? The people who put their livelihoods and reputations on the line, that made us targets. The U.S. Attorney let us all down, not to mention the case agents and everyone who worked on it."

And finally, Andreu would ask a personal question:

5. How do you plan on undoing the damage you did to people, especially those who were your friends, people like Frankie?

Andreu doesn't expect Armstrong to be asked that question, nor any of the others, nor does she expect he could possibly answer them. She says she "can't stomach the idea of watching" the Winfrey interview. "If it's going to be like Marion Jones revisited; save it," she says of Winfrey's sympathetic 2008 interview with the now-disgraced track star, who ended up serving six months in prison for her role in performance-enchancing drug use and a check-kiting scheme.

"The people who genuinely cared about him, he just threw away," Andreu says of Armstrong. "To me, he's like Bernie Madoff. He said he was sorry, too, but should we let him trade stocks again?"